Because What?

My son, Adi, hardly ever asks why. When he was about two years old, I kept telling my husband that I couldn't wait for the time when Adi would finally ask us lots of questions, particularly why.

Well he did get to that question-asking phase:
"Why is 5 a number?"
"Did God paint us? Is the paint dry na?"
"Why does sipon live in our nose?"

Adi's own version of why, more often than not, however, is "Because what?" When he wants to find out the reason for something, why is not the word that often comes to mind but: "Because what?" And we try to answer as patiently as we can.

Aside from "because what," Adi also has a strong sense of knowing that certain actions bring about specific consequences. When we tell him to do something or conversely, not to do something, the next question he asks is: "If not, then what?" "If yes, then what?"

Kids' questions. They can be pretty amusing and also insightful. More difficult though are the questions we adults ask. "Because what?" is something we try hard to answer as we think of all the innocent people who died or who were hurt by last Tuesday's incident. What the final consequences will be, your guess is as good as anyone else's. Still, we all wish the questions were not this tough.